The serpent, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life.

[AFTT47]

You guys are funny.
Being created in God's image, you cannot help but be smart.
Of course, there are degrees of intelligence and one might also ask,
"Smart? Compared to what?"
You think atheists have the corner on brightness?
Maybe you need some more wattage in your lamps.

As I tried to show (I am feeling like Drich, minus his large amount of patience in repeating the answer over and over).
It is not the following after of knowledge that is messed up.
It is the folly of excluding the seeking of the most important knowledge in this life.

I get the impression from others that this is going to be a waste of time but what the hell. Might as well experience it for myself.

Professor, we know we don't have a monopoly on intelligence and we get it when you say there is nothing wrong with seeking scientific knowledge in itself. The problem is, you are claiming that seeking scientific knowledge interferes with knowledge of God. Can't you see what a flim-flam that looks like? It looks like you want to keep us ignorant so we are easier to manipulate. Indeed, history is full of examples of the church doing just that. Political leaders do the same thing. It's an old trick.

You cannot expect a thinking person to simply accept what you are selling without examining it. We've examined it and found it to be the worst kind of pure crap. It doesn't stand up to logic, it doesn't stand up to evidence and most importantly, it doesn't stand up to facts. Would you accept ANYTHING else aside from religion that similarly failed that test? Why do you make an exception for religion? Why would you expect us to?